Thursday, February 10, 2011

Rhee's Tiger Mom Chancellor Techniques Ruled Arbitrary and Capricious

Remember Michelle Rhee, the woman who ruled over DC schools and threatened to step down if Fenty was not re-elected and illegally campaigned for Fenty during his try for re-election?

The same Rhee who taped her students’ mouths shut because she just didn’t know what else to do with them when she did her two year stint as a Teach for America recruit?

The same Rhee who accomplished the wholesale firing of teachers in DC and implicated that many of them were under suspicion of sexual misconduct which later turned out to be false but painted a horrific picture of teachers in general? That Michelle Rhee?

Well, an arbitrator in DC determined her firings as “arbitrary and capricious”. Per the article at wtop.com:

An arbitrator has ruled that former Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee improperly fired 75 new teachers in 2008 and is ordering them reinstated with two years of back pay. That would amount to a maximum of $7.5 million.

Arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum found that the school system never told the teachers why they were being fired and gave them no chance to explain or refute what their principals reported to school system officials.

A complete waste of time and money for students, parents and teachers in the DC area. She destabilized an entire community that didn’t need any more disruption and angst. The voters showed her and Fenty the door but not without paying a price for Rhee’s rule in DC.